Soft-landing of peptides onto self-assembled monolayer surfaces

Mass-selected peptide ions produced by electrospray ionization were deposited as ions by soft-landing (SL) onto fluorinated and hydrogenated self-assembled monolayer (FSAM and HSAM) surfaces using a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FT-ICR MS) specially designed for studying collisions of large ions with surfaces. Analysis of modified surfaces was performed in situ by combining 2 keV Cs(+) secondary ion mass spectrometry with FT-ICR detection of the sputtered ions (FT-ICR-SIMS). Similar SIMS spectra obtained following SL at different collision energies indicate that peptide fragmentation occurred in the analysis step (SIMS) rather than during ion deposition. The effect of the surface on SL was studied by comparing the efficiencies of SL on gold, FSAM, HSAM, and COOH-terminated SAM surfaces. It was found that FSAM surfaces are more efficient in retaining ions than their HSAM analogues, consistent with their larger polarizability. The efficiency of soft-landing of different peptides on the FSAM surface increases with the charge state of the ion, also consistent with an ion-polarizable molecule model for the initial stage of soft-landing on SAM surfaces. The gradual decrease of peptide ion deposition efficiency with an increase in collision energy found experimentally was quantitatively rationalized using the hard-cube model.